Research progress of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometrial receptivity in recent 10 years

Abstract

The research of acupuncture and moxibustion for endometrial receptivity in recent 10 years was reviewed. CNKI and PubMed databases were retrieved with "acupuncture" "moxibustion" and "endometrial receptivity" as key words. The retrieving time was from January of 2007 through December of 2016. As a result, 63 relevant papers were collected and 28 papers regarding clinical and experimental researches of acupuncture for endometrial receptivity were included into analysis. It was found that acupuncture and moxibustion could improve endometrial morphology (including the expression of pinopodes, endometrial thickness and the rate of endometrial type A), reduce the endometrial microcirculation (including endometrial pulsatility index, resistance index and hemodynamic index), increase the levels of estrogen and progesterone and the expressions of their receptors, and regulate the expression of molecular biological regulator (such as integrin, leukemia inhibitory factor, vascular endothelial growth factor and HOXA10). As a result, the endometrial receptivity was improved to provide good environment for embryo implantation and improve the pregnancy rate, which had significant advantage in the field of assisted reproductive technology. However, detections of pinopodes and integrin were invasive. Its application for clinical use had limitations. In addition, the evidence of acupuncture improving endometrial receptivity was still insufficient. By reviewing related research result, this paper further summarized and analyzed the action mechanism of acupuncture for endometrial receptivity to provide references for the clinical treatment.